SEVEN

“That’s a Wrap!”

Initially, it seemed that the local citizens supported the Earps’ actions. The response of the San Francisco Exchange was typical: “The people of Tombstone have reason to congratulate themselves that they have marshals who are dead shots, and we hope the Tombstoners appreciate the fact.” Still, the day after the gunfight, the bodies of Billy Clanton and Frank and Tom McLaury were displayed at the undertaker’s beneath a sign that read “Murdered in the Streets of Tombstone.” Slowly, inexplicably, public opinion began to turn against the peace officers. Within a matter of days, Ike Clanton filed murder charges against Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil and Doc; all were subsequently arrested. Wyatt and Holliday were jailed for two weeks during the hearing, while Virgil and Morgan were exempted because of their wounds. On November 30, after a lengthy hearing where Behan testified in support of the Cowboys and Clanton accused Earp of everything except the murder of Cock Robin, Judge Wells Spicer ruled there was insufficient evidence to indict the men: “I am of the opinion that the defendant, Virgil Earp, as chief of police, subsequently calling upon Wyatt Earp and J.H. Holliday to assist him in arresting and disarming the Clantons and McLaurys, committed an injudicious and censurable act, and although in this he acted incautiously and without due circumspection; yet when we consider the conditions of affairs incident to a frontier country; the lawlessness and disregard for human life; the existence of a law-defying element in [our] midst; the fear and feeling of insecurity that has existed; the supposed prevalence of bad, desperate and reckless men who have been a terror to the country and kept away capital and enterprise; and consider the many threats that have been made against the Earps, I can attach no criminality to his unwise act. In fact, as the result plainly proves, he needed the assistance and support of staunch and true friends, upon whose courage, coolness and fidelity he could depend, in case of an emergency.”

But Spicer’s decision didn’t end the matter. Less than a month later, on the night of December 28, Virgil Earp was ambushed by an unknown assailant or assailants while walking his rounds at the intersection of Allen and Fifth. The shotgun blast he absorbed was vicious—Virgil’s left arm was sufficiently shattered such that Dr. Goodfellow had to remove five and a half inches from the humerus bone. Wyatt quickly wired for authorization to become a deputy U.S. marshal, and he and his posse searched for Pony Diehl and Ike and Phin Clanton—the three Cowboys they believed were behind the attack on Virgil. Fearing reprisal, Clanton turned himself in to Behan and even stood trial for attempted murder, but after a parade of convenient alibi “witnesses,” the judge was reluctantly forced to release Ike. But Spicer also gave Wyatt some sage advice: “You’ll never clean up this town this way. Next time you’d better leave your prisoners out in the brush where alibis don’t count.”

Morgan was next. On March 18, he was shooting pool in Campbell and Hatch’s Billiard Parlor and had his back to the door when several shots rang out. One bullet narrowly missed Wyatt, who was watching the game, but another struck Morgan, who pitched forward onto the table and then collapsed to the floor. Fearing another attack, Wyatt, Sherm McMaster and Dan Tipton dragged Morgan ten feet away from the rear door and close to a door to the card room. Drs. Mathews, Goodfellow and Millar were summoned to no avail; Morgan died within an hour. Pete Spence, Frederick Bode, Frank Stillwell, “Indian Charlie” Florentino Cruz and one other individual eventually were charged as suspects. Wyatt felt that Spence had nothing to do with Morgan’s shooting, but believed that Stillwell, Cruz, Ringo, Brocius and Hank Swilling were involved. These two blows, just months apart, were too much for even Wyatt to bear. Virgil’s maiming and Morgan’s death changed Wyatt from peace officer to vigilante, vowing revenge on all Cowboys.

Arrangements were made to send Morgan’s casket to his father in California, with James Earp accompanying it. Bessie and Mattie Earp followed five days later. Wyatt and his posse then escorted Virgil and Allie first to Contention and then on to Tucson. But as they waited for Virgil’s train to leave the Tucson station, Wyatt noticed two armed men in the shadows near the train. Discovered by the vindictive lawman, Ike Clanton and Frank Stillwell made a break for it. Ike escaped. Frank didn’t, as Wyatt shot him with a double-barrel shotgun. Other Earp posse members, including Holliday, Warren Earp, “Turkey Creek” Jack Johnson and Sherm McMaster, may have also fired shots into Stillwell as bystander George Hand described Stillwell as “the most shot-up man I ever saw.” While it’s highly unlikely, Virgil Earp still claimed, “Before Stillwell died he confessed that he killed Morg and gave the names of those who were implicated with him.” When the angry Earp left to track down the rest of his brother’s killers, he became a wanted man, supported by local businessmen and Wells Fargo, but now also hunted by Behan’s posse, which included Johnny Ringo, Pete Spence, Johnny Barnes and 17 other Cowboys. Over the next two days, Earp killed Florentino Cruz at Pete Spence’s logging camp, located off the Chiricahua Road, below the South Pass of the Dragoon Mountains, and Curly Bill Brocius at the Iron (Cottonwood) Springs waterhole in the Whetstone Mountains. Curly Bill and his men had ambushed Earp, who, unaware that his posse had abandoned him, advanced alone toward the outlaw, shotgun in hand. Curly Bill fired his own shotgun at Earp but missed; Wyatt fired a shotgun blast into Bill’s chest, killing the outlaw. As the remaining Cowboys opened up, their shots shattered Earp’s boot heel and saddle pommel, and pierced the coattails of his duster. Wyatt fired his revolver and hit Johnny Barnes, who later died from the wound. Earp then struggled to mount his saddle as his cartridge belt had slipped from his waist, but eventually he did and rode away. As daily local and national newspapers reported Earp’s Vendetta activities, his support from those who had previously endorsed him continued to dwindle—the law and order populace could no longer abide by his actions. Earp and his men eventually made their way to Hooker’s Sierra Bonita ranch, but faced with no viable alternative, they left the Arizona Territory for New Mexico in April 1882. Even the best of friends sometimes quarrel: Wyatt and Holliday had a falling out in Albuquerque, allegedly after Doc called Earp a “Jew boy’ because of Wyatt’s romance with Josephine Marcus. The Earps and Vermillion moved on to Gunnison, Colorado, while Holliday headed for Denver. It was over. The Vendetta ride had lasted a mere 17 days, but Wyatt’s reputation had suffered irreparable damage because he now was viewed not as an avenging brother, but rather as a murderous retaliator.

On July 14, Johnny Ringo was found dead, a bullet hole in his right temple, at the base of a large tree in West Turkey Creek Valley, not far from Rustler Park. It was an odd scene, because his boots were tied to the saddle of his horse (which was captured two miles away), and a torn undershirt protected his feet. Ringo was armed to the teeth as a coroner’s report stated: “His revolver he grasped in his right hand, his rifle resting against the tree close to him. He had two cartridge belts, the belt for revolver cartridges being buckled upside down. The undernoted property was found with him and on his person: one Colt’s revolver, calibre 45, No. 222, containing five cartridges; one Winchester rifle octagon barrel, calibre 45, model 1876, No. 21, 986, containing a cartridge in the breech and ten in the magazine; 1 cartridge belt, containing 9 rifle cartridges; 1 cartridge belt containing 2 revolver cartridges.” Over the years, although Wyatt, Holliday, Buckskin Frank Leslie and/or Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce (Michael O’Rourke) were either blamed or took credit for Ringo’s death, the coroner’s inquest ruled his death a suicide. Historians debate the truth of Ringo’s demise to this day.

Four months later, Wyatt left for California. His life as a lawman was over.¹

Babocomari Ranch, Saturday, August 28, 1993. After 15 weeks filming, the last day of shooting had finally arrived. Production began on May 17 on the Babocomari Ranch, and then moved to Old Tucson Studios, on to Mescal and then back to Old Tucson. Now it ended up here where it all started. Scene #41 depicts the meeting between Wyatt and McMasters as Earp attempts to retrieve his stolen horses. According to Larry Zeug: “We’re set up in this bowl canyon that had one way in and one way out unless you went up over the hill. We’re all stationed with tents around the hill, we’re either supposed to either get on our horse or walk down when Wyatt comes to the camp.” John Philbin recalls, “When Kurt showed up in character … and got off his horse and shot that scene, he had Wyatt Earp down. He was different that day. He had acquired, briefly, the rage and power of that character. It came out in his eyes and his mannerisms and his voice. He actually changed. I remember him saying the last day, ‘Fuck, I wish … that’s the character. I found him.’ I was like, ‘Better late than never. I think you had him all along but that was fucking insane, great work you just did.’ It was powerful how he did that scene but it didn’t end up in the movie. You’re so busy doing so many things and the character comes to you at night or the next month.”

Russell even apologized to Philbin for his perceived aloofness. “John, I ended up working every night until I had to pass out,” explained Kurt. “After we worked all day, I would work with George on the script and on the directing. Usually after shooting I get a beer with the boys every time. But, I didn’t do it this time because I had to work on the script every night. I’ve never worked on a movie where I couldn’t just hang out with actors and have a beer afterwards.”²

Interesting comments from one who never really wanted to act. “To go on about acting as art is ridiculous,” claims Russell. “If it is an art, then it’s a very low form. You don’t have to be gifted just to hit a mark and say a line. And as far as I am concerned, hitting my marks and knowing my lines is 90 percent of the job. I’m always criticized for talking like that. Maybe the reason I do it is that I never got the chance to develop a real desire to act. I was acting by the time I was nine so it seemed like a natural thing to do. Anyone who finds acting difficult just shouldn’t be doing it.”³

Sam Elliott wasn’t really satisfied with his performance, either. “Kurt and I had never worked together, and I’d been a huge fan of Kurt’s since I was a kid,” Elliott says. “And then we got together, and we’re both pretty strong guys. And we had that rub kinda goin’ between us, I think, during production, and it’s evident on screen…. It made it tough at times, but it worked on the film. I don’t know, I just felt like I went a little too far overboard with it. I think that’s what makes it tough at the end—when you’re not happy with what you did.”⁴

As first AD, Adam Taylor had endured an ungodly amount of grief from Cosmatos. “He put up with more shit,” admits Larry Zeug. “Nobody would have put up with as much as he did. They would have quit and walked away.” The Buckaroos therefore wanted to give Adam a token of appreciation for all his efforts: a symbol for having survived that ordeal and representing the respect that the crew and actors had for him. “The last day of the movie, one of the guys … made a plaque,” says Reggie Byrum. “[Mounted on it] was a pressure valve gauge that had the needle [bent] all the way over past the red mark.” Reggie instructed the rest of the Buckaroos, “When I yell ‘Buckaroos,’ we’ll all ride down and give Adam this [plaque].” One uneasy Buckaroo asked, “Oh, shit … what if…?” Byrum replied, “Hey, it’s the last day. What are they going to do, fire us?” All the Buckaroos rode down en masse and presented the gift to Taylor. An extremely grateful Adam asked, “What does this mean?” His father Buck put it into the proper perspective: “That means you’ll work for any asshole.”⁵

Zeug continues, “Right before noon, we get hit with a rainstorm so they break for lunch. We had a flash flood come down through there. They had people walking through this water five-foot deep carrying a camera to keep it from going down the hill. And it virtually wiped out the Cowboy camp. The lunch wagon was there and they had steak and lobster for us. (A typical lunch menu could include BBQ prime rib, BBQ split breast, Alaskan crab legs, steamed green beans, steamed asparagus, baked potato, salad bar and sushi bar. Cosmatos had buttered white-bread roast beef sandwiches and caramel-crème brulle every day. Tux Wagon, the caterer, also handed out T-shirts to everyone present to commemorate the film’s end.) And when this water came down the canyon, it physically washed out the whole set. They were lucky to save the cameras and some of the equipment that was out there. Everybody was rushing all over trying to save stuff. And, of course, we’ve got our horses out there. All this water went down and where we had parked our horse trailer, it was two foot of water. Instant mud. So we tried to drive out; some of us hooked up and pulled each other out to get our vehicles out. We loaded up our horses, but [when] the water was gone, Cosmatos is hollering, ‘I want to set up.’ We said, ‘Wait a minute. We’re wrapped. We’re out of here.’ He tried to call us all back but we said, ‘No, we’re not coming back. The movie’s over.’” That’s how the movie ended. Around three or four o’clock, production said, “Okay, it’s a wrap.” And after a few more close-ups of Russell on his horse, it was over. No speeches, no ceremony. Sherayko and a few of the Buckaroos were running up and down the ravine trying to collect the weapons that had washed away. One of the extras remembers Stephen Lang saying, “This is the perfect way to end this motherfucker!” The director, wearing his by now filthy white tennis shoes, slowly trudged through the muck to his car and driver. Once he arrived there, he stepped out of his shoes, got in the car, and was driven away. His tennis shoes were left stuck in the mud. Many extras drove home in their soaked wardrobe, and that was the end of Tombstone.⁶

The next day, Philbin met Russell, sans mustache, in the hotel lobby. Kurt had immediately shaved it off, as did almost all of the mustached actors. Kurt confessed that Goldie said of his mustache, “You may look great but I can’t stand kissing you with that thing.” According to Michael Biehn, “Everyone just grew a mustache. When it comes down to it, this goes back to Kevin Jarre…. He was very specific about how he wanted the mustaches. He wanted them to curl up on the end, which means, if you grow a mustache, and it grows long enough, you have to use wax on the end of it. Everyone was pretty proud that they grew their own mustache. There was one guy, Jon Tenney. He didn’t get to grow his own mustache because he had a job right before that. They had to put a fake mustache on him. I think he always felt a little bit like the small dog of the group, because it wasn’t his real mustache. He had to take his mustache off every day. I don’t think anyone paid much attention to his mustache. Unless Kevin said, ‘Someone work on Michael Biehn’s mustache!’”

“I remember that last night of shooting,” recalls Burke. “We were 100 percent sure the gate was clean, film’s good, we were told we could shave off our mustaches. Everybody who had a mustache got into a trailer, and we all started to whack away. ‘Jesus Christ. You’re a good-looking son of a bitch, aren’t you?’ And we had a competition. Kurt won, Sam came in second. I think I came in third, or maybe Stephen Lang.”⁷

To celebrate their bonding experience on the film, Russell and Kilmer gave each other gifts to remember the occasion. “I wanted to give him something that was special,” said Val. “It was really fun and we became good friends working on it. So I bought him a piece of land in Tombstone. And because I knew he’d probably never go and see it and definitely not build on it unless he really hit hard times, I got a photograph taken with his chair on it with his name and framed it because I figured it’ll be a nice-looking gift but legitimate sales slip for the land. He did the exact same thing except he gave me a gravesite inside of Tombstone. All the bodies are not actually in Boot Hill, they were moved to the Tombstone cemetery and he got me a tomb in Tombstone. Not a tomb, a plot. Framed with a picture of me with my chair there. Same exact gift we got each other. I got him a place to live and he got me a place to die. It’s a 6 × 4 but it’s mine and plot number 666, too, which is eerie. We laughed.”⁸

After filming was complete, the cast and crew made their way back to Hollywood or wherever their next projects would take them. Paxton had left the production on August 25 to begin work on True Lies; Delany’s next project, Exit to Eden, began on September 15, and Elliott started The Desperate Trail on November 17.

While many of the others took well-deserved breaks, Russell had already signed a deal with Canel+ to appear in Stargate, which began filming on September 13. As a result, he wasn’t involved in any of the post-production activities. According to some, Cosmatos’ first cut of Tombstone was in excess of 210 minutes, way too long for what Disney had in mind. Far from impressed with the script, cinematography or the acting, the studio just wanted to get the film released and out into local theaters a.s.a.p. to generate some sort of revenue to offset the costs. In order to get a jump-start on post-production, the editors had left the set and moved to Los Angles even before filming was completed. The initial post-production schedule was as follows:

September 13 to September 18: Complete assembly of film

September 20 to November 13: Fine-cut film

November 1: begin Sound editing

November 19: preview screening

November 27: lock in Picture

December 6 to December 18: ADR/Foley recording

December 20 to December 23: music recording

January 3 to January 29: pre-dubbing and final mixing

February 1 to February 4: delivery to Disney

However, it quickly became apparent that a February 1994 release would be unacceptable as it was just too late, given that Costner was working on his own Earp project. And since his start of filming date had been July 19, 1993, who knew how long Costner would film or when his film would be ready for release? Disney needed to be the first one out, and a February release was just too risky. Russell acknowledged that there was “tremendous pressure” to reach theaters first. “Nobody ever said, ‘You got to do it now and beat this other film,’ but it was on everybody’s minds,” he says. “We’ll never have enough time to make Tombstone the way we want. There is no point at which you go back to it and say, ‘If I just had that…’ I just say, go with the schedule that you have, go with the people that you can get, go with the screenplay that you have, make the movie as good as you can do it, do the day’s work, move on, keep moving.” So the studio accelerated the process by splitting the post-production activities into two parts: the first half of the film and the second half of the film, and called it the “Pressure Schedule.” The fine cut was to be completed by November 6, music, November 18, ADR/Foley sound effects, November 22, and Dub & Mix by November 29. The editors then could begin printing masters and deliver their product to Disney. Including editing, music, Foley & ADR, dubs, 35mm interpositive and internegative prints, production dupes and answer prints, total post-production costs totaled $2,588,330.⁹

At 210 minutes (a three-and-a-half–hour movie) the number of daily showings was severely restricted. Alfred Hitchcock once said, “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.” At a running time of two hours or less, it was felt that “audiences don’t have a pre-built set of expectations about pacing and structure. You can keep people surprised and guessing the whole time without exhausting their excitement.” Hence, the shorter the film, the greater the opportunity. So, in an effort to pare Tombstone’s length down to a more manageable two hours, numerous scenes were cut, including some that further explained the complex relationship between Curly Bill and Ringo. After Jarre was fired and Cosmatos was brought on board, the dynamic and balance of power between these two particular Cowboys changed significantly. According to Biehn, “Powers could have said, ‘I’m the antagonist in the movie. I’m not going to support Michael Biehn—he was signed to support me!’ But he was very, very gracious. Powers’ reactions made Johnny Ringo—he had a comedic way of complementing my character as being someone he really enjoyed, that impressed him. If everybody around you is walking on eggshells, you don’t have to do very much.” Adds Michael, “We were all disappointed with the way our interpretations of the Cowboys came out. We had developed a very close fraternity, especially Powers and I. We rode horses together and read together and really Ringo only spoke to Curly Bill. None of that was shown in the movie.”¹⁰

In an attempt at brevity, in addition to the aforementioned scenes, several others were also left on the cutting room floor: slow-motion dying at the O.K. Corral à la The Wild Bunch; Curly Bill’s eulogy following the deaths of Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury; Curly Bill’s attempt to convince Wyatt that Fred White’s death was an accident; Wyatt’s vulgar exclamation to Josephine Marcus after Morgan’s death (“Whore! Jew whore! Get away from me!”); and Doc’s farewell scene with Kate. On November 11, in addition to numerous looping changes and dialogue corrections and eliminations, producer Sean Daniel suggested to Andy Vajna that perhaps it would be best to include a lovemaking or kissing scene between Wyatt and Josephine: “If they don’t, then many of the following scenes don’t make any sense,” Daniel pointed out. “Why is Wyatt so guilty when his wife accuses him? Why does he call Josephine ‘whore’ in the street? Why does Josephine forgive him? Kurt and Dana play the parts as if they had made love, and it shows. I also think women (who buy romance novels by the millions) will like the idea of Wyatt torn between two women.” Daniel also suggested ten specific cuts to reduce the film’s length: Claiborne and Barnes (John Corbett) meeting with Ike Clanton; the opium scene; the post–O.K. Corral scene between Wyatt and Mattie; the stagecoach heist; Breakenridge’s pursuit of Fabian’s killers; Behan’s warning to Josephine; the attack on the Earp wives; the snow dance; and a trim of Holliday’s death scene, including his comments about his lost love and Wyatt’s book. Some suggestions were implemented, others rejected.¹¹

The cuts also include an extended sequence where Billy Claiborne and Wes Fuller defect from the outlaw gang after Curly Bill’s death and subsequently kill Romulus Fabian in a stagecoach holdup. Explains Bo Gray, “Someone says, ‘Fuller and Claiborne did it.’ But the footage was cut out where we actually kill him. [In this sequence,] Breakenridge tripped over a saddle and accidentally shot us dead with a big old buffalo gun. After Breakenridge kills [us], we’re draped over our saddles for the ride to Hooker’s [ranch]. Doc and Wyatt ask, ‘Who’s that?’ and Breakenridge answers, ‘It’s Claiborne and Fuller. I killed them!’”

Gray also was extremely upset with the way the duo’s death scene was filmed: “I talked to Jason about it, I said, ‘Jason, take those damn spurs off, those big Spanish rowels. You can hear them coming and the sound is going to pick them up.’ Priestley agreed, ‘Well, that’s a good idea.’ But he didn’t do it ’cause George said, ‘I want the noise.’ So Jason [now] sneaks up on us and scares us. Well, when a man is scared and embarrassed, what’s his first reaction? He’s mad? ‘Sister-boy! What are you doing here??’ We played out the scene and George said, ‘Cut.’ He never called me by my name until the [end of shooting]. He said, ‘Hey, you. Come here. That is much too big.’ I said, ‘George, it’s what I felt. I’m embarrassed; I’m pissed off at this little effeminate deputy sheriff. He scared me and he’s got a buffalo gun in my chest. It’s an honest reaction.’ George [just] said, ‘Look at the video-assist. Goddammit, you’re too big.’ I looked at him and I said, ‘Shit, I oughta get an Academy Award.’ Cosmatos replied, ‘You get your ass back there and you’re just playing really low-key.’” And the scene was cut.¹²

Bo, still furious, searched out Kilmer for advice: “I described that scene to him, and he said, ‘Wait just a minute.’ He went and got Kurt. So I did the scene for both of them [and told them], ‘Guys, you know. I’m getting all this bullshit from the director about this. What’s wrong with this scene?’ Kurt looked at my face, put his hand on my chin and said, ‘Look in the mirror. You’ve got a great-looking face. All you gotta do is what the director said.’ Val told me later, ‘Well, Bo. If it makes you feel any better, they had a giant fight over that scene between the producers and the director. Some wanted to keep it in, some wanted to keep it out.’”¹³

During production, several media outlets visited the set for publicity and specialty pieces, including People, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, Italian journalist Sylvia Bizio (La Repubblica and L’Espresso), Premiere magazine, etc. By June 18, just four weeks into production, Andy Vajna had already been contacted by the Buena Vista home video division of Disney regarding the anticipated video release of the film, which would include “special additional footage, director’s cuts and talent and director’s messages.” It was felt such a product would not only generate extra public relations out of the video market, but the added content would enhance sales. Since video renters tended to be people who had not previously seen the film and had missed the theatrical promotions, Disney felt that “by having these extra pieces of film or extra bits, the video market has something to latch onto to generate hype and sales.” Naturally, the studio would be careful not to cause additional expense or “incur … the wrath of the set.” Vajna approved the concept and asked that Patti Hawn coordinate the activity. As production was starting to wrap up, cast and crew publicity was required, so the official photograph was taken on August 8 in Mescal. The following day, portrait photographers Fred Tio and Greg Gorman arrived on location to shoot ad art with Russell, Paxton, Elliott, Kilmer, Delany, Boothe and Biehn. Delany was also asked to “write” a diary of her experiences by Premiere, but declined. To increase the film’s “wow” factor, the production loaned numerous wardrobe items to Planet Hollywood, including Kurt Russell’s black long coat, black jacket, vest, pants, white shirt and boots with lifts; Sam Elliott and Bill Paxton’s gray pinstriped suits with white shirts and boots; and Val Kilmer’s gray cape, black short jacket, pants, vest and gray shirt and boots.¹⁴

Composer Jerry Goldsmith, an Academy Award winner (The Omen, 1976), was contracted to write the musical score. Along with music editor Ken Hall, Goldsmith was scheduled to travel to London on October 24 where, along with scoring mixer Bruce Botnik, he would record and mix the score. The music would then be delivered by November 10. In fact, as late as October 10 in the post-production schedule, Goldsmith’s name still appeared on one of the ending credit cards. Jerry, like Cosmatos, had had a longstanding, very close professional relationship with Andy Vajna. Goldsmith had also done a few movies with George so it would have been natural that Jerry was asked to work on Tombstone. However, by October 12, Goldsmith was forced to back out due to a scheduling conflict, and Cinergi approached Russian composer Vladimir Horunzhy, who expressed interest in using the Hungarian National Philharmonic to perform his score. Unfortunately, Horunzhy’s delivery date wouldn’t be until late November, which was deemed unacceptable. Goldsmith then recommended Bruce Broughton, who composed and produced the final score. Broughton recalls that he didn’t have a great deal of time to compose: “Perhaps four weeks or less.” The score was recorded by the Sinfonia of London orchestra and conducted by David Snell rather than Broughton as the latter wanted to produce from the recording booth. Patricia Carlin then edited the music. Broughton, given little guidance regarding what the producers wanted other than “Don’t make it sound like a Western,” was up to the task despite being puzzled by that directive. “This confused me,” admits Bruce, “especially with the guns, horses and cowboys and classic O.K. Corral theme. I asked Jerry [Goldsmith] about it. He said simply, ‘Bruce, do what you’re going to do.’ And I did.” The composer succeeded admirably. Wrote Broughton in the liner notes for the Tombstone 1993/2006 CD release, “The music to Tombstone is not particularly ‘Western’ in that the orchestration depends not at all on the typical Western instruments such as the guitar and harmonica. It relies, in fact, on (a dark combination of) instruments of ethnic color like the Hungarian cimbalom, the Irish tin whistle and bhodran, and the French contrabass sarrusophone. The brass section includes, along with tenor and bass trombones, the more massive contratrombone.”¹⁵

Before Broughton began writing the music, he saw a rough cut of Tombstone with the temp track from Silverado. Also known as “scratch music, or temp-dub,” a temp track is an existing piece of music used in the editing process to create mood and atmosphere, style and emotion, and can help the producer and director get a feel for the movie before the actual score is created. “Constructed by a music editor, in most cases, it is a blueprint of a film’s soundtrack—a musical topography of score, songs, culture and codes in which a balance must be obtained between the director’s vision, the music’s function, underlying requirements of genre, and the spectator’s perception.” Broughton explains, “George asked me what I thought about ‘his music’ he had placed in the film. ‘I love your music,’ I said, ‘but I hate it in this movie.’ Actually, that music made the movie look stupid. Tombstone was nothing like Silverado. Silverado is very carefully crafted with classic good guys vs. bad guys and classic farmers vs. settlers themes. It’s about friendship and family. Tombstone is much darker; even the heroes are dark. Wyatt Earp is a card dealer who two-times his wife, an opium addict, and eventually runs off with an actress. His best friend is a tubercular gambler and deadly gunslinger, Doc Holliday, who is also a terrific alcoholic and morally depraved, but who also happens to have the best wit in the film. The emotions are over-the-top; so is the music. Everything is on a big scale and is very dark, emotionally. It’s often melodramatic, but practically always entertaining. To my mind, the music simply plays the scenes.”¹⁶

Broughton continues, “George wasn’t particularly enamored with the temp track. He just wanted to see what I thought about using the Silverado score. Although he could be a charming guy, he could be very difficult and quite mercurial. I played him a little bit of the theme that I was working on; he wasn’t exactly complimentary. When I finished the theme, I played it later for Andy Vajna and Buzz Feitshans and they liked it.” The music was recorded at the Sony Whitfield Studio in London. While Mike Trevor-Ross mixed the score. Andy Vajna attended the sessions; Cosmatos didn’t. Perhaps George didn’t appreciate Broughton’s comment about Silverado. Nevertheless, due to a particularly tight schedule, the studio never had the time to temp-track the second half of the film, so when the film was screened for the media, it included Broughton’s score.¹⁷

A pre-screening was held on November 18, 1993, with less than favorable results. All the media outlets were represented, including Good Morning America, CNN, HBO, Entertainment Tonight, Turner Entertainment, the Associated Press, MTV, Knight Rider/New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, among others. The American Humane Association (AHA) sent a representative the following week and deemed the film “Acceptable.” The AHA wrote that trained horses had been brought in on the set, and the ground was properly prepared for all falls and stunts. Quarter loads were used for the gunfire and cotton was placed in the animals’ ears. Word on the street was that Cinergi hadn’t delivered the completed film yet and that the December 17 release might not be met, but Disney countered that the film had been delivered and tested at the El Monte theater to 83 percent favorable results. Said one production source, “Frankly, I don’t see any way to trim that much this close to opening and not seriously hurt the film’s integrity.” Entertainment Weekly wrote that Kurt Russell was livid after seeing the film—supposedly saying it was the “worst shit he’s ever acted in”—but later published a statement from Russell that he only “disliked the soundtrack.” The actor apparently must have only heard the temp track, because Broughton’s score was both engaging and memorable. According to Broughton, the only change in the score was to expand the music over the end credits to make the score about a minute longer. This happened during dubbing because they lengthened the credits. Producer Jim Jacks was another one who felt the film could have been better. Shut out of the editing process, he confessed, “There was a great movie to be cut from the footage, and everybody did their best in a short post-production period. The result is a good movie, but it isn’t the movie Kevin set out to make. That’s the problem. We don’t feel we quite delivered on the script…. It should have been a great movie. After one of the previews, George Cosmatos came up to me and said, ‘You see, we were right! They loved the movie.’ I said, ‘George, you had a great script and a great cast and we made a good movie. It’s not something we should be doing cartwheels over.’”¹⁸

As the final edit was resolved, the ever-grinding publicity mill continued churning out obligatory press releases and scheduling mandatory interviews with the stars. Typical was Sam Elliott’s December 13, 1993, schedule at the Beverly Hill Four Seasons Hotel. After being groomed and made-up by Randi Fallick, Elliott had to sit through the following:

1:00–1:15 p.m. National News Syndicate

1:15–1:30 p.m. CNN

1:30–1:45 p.m. HBO

1:45–2:00 p.m. TBA

2:00–2:15 p.m. Good Day LA

2:30–3:00 p.m. Roundtable interviews with Drama-Logue, AP Radio, ABC Radio Network, CBS Network Radio, E! Radio, LEG Productions, Premiere Radio, Westwood One, Entertainment Today, Interview Factory, KIEV-AM, KBIG/Satellite News, Sheridan Broadcasting, 60-Second Preview, and USA Overnight.

Whew!

Russell appeared on Entertainment Tonight, The Tonight Show, Turner Entertainment Tonight, MTV, Good Morning America, HBO, CNN, while Kilmer hit Regis & Kathie Lee, VH-1 and a variety of local stations. Delany appeared on David Letterman. The closer the premiere date, which had been pushed back to December 25, the greater the saturation. Jacks had previously stated, “We needed a bit more time in post-production for a movie we wrapped the end of August. Also, the competition on the 17th—when Pelican Brief is released—combined with the fact that the weekend before Christmas is one of the worst weekends for movie exhibition—caused Disney to decide Christmas was a better release date.”¹⁹

Typically, film openings deliberately positioned in November and December benefit from the late-game visibility when the Academy picks its nominees the following January, while still meeting the eligibility cut-off for the subsequent awards ceremony in late February or March. And a Christmas opening virtually guarantees a huge box office. In fact, nearly one-third of the top 20 highest-grossing movies of all time were released over the holidays. This practice started in 1947 when Paramount released Road to Rio, the fifth installment of the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby-Dorothy Lamour Road franchise. Rio was the sixth highest grossing movie of the year, and a tradition was born. Disney hoped that lightning would strike once again with quick returns. However, they also had no intention of incurring any additional costs promoting the film for Academy nominations.²⁰

But there was an issue on the horizon. Would the expected delivery of 1500 Tombstone prints take place before the expected release date? The release had already been pushed back twice; another delay would be a disaster. And it wasn’t because the film wasn’t ready. Disney had decided to utilize the services of Technicolor Entertainment Services (TES) to deliver the prints, rather than industry stalwart National Film Service (NFS), which had handled prints for all major studios and independents for 47 years. TES is a closed-loop computer system that was designed to constantly track a print during delivery to minimize the risk of piracy. Tombstone would be the second major test for the start-up delivery system. Earlier, TES had failed miserably in its attempt to deliver all Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit prints to the appropriate theaters; 106 of 2132 prints failed to reach their designated locations. Some prints were delivered to tire stores, restaurants and even a Sears department store. To insure that the Tombstone prints arrived on time, each one was scheduled to be received on Friday, December 23. And it worked because except for 15 rural locations with theaters only open on weekends, all prints arrived on time.²¹

Perhaps Disney had wished deliveries of these prints hadn’t been so prompt, because the film’s initial reviews were less than satisfactory. Though Tombstone officially premiered on December 25, several media outlets had previously viewed the film and were just waiting to render their verdicts. (Academy members were invited to preview the film on December 20 at the Magno Sound Review I in New York, New York, and on December 21 at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.) The Hollywood Reporter suggested the “ambitious, bloody and touchy-feely rendering of Earp’s post–Dodge City days in Tombstone [would] lose most of its audience during its infrequent conversational rides down philosophical box canyons. [Although peppered with] colorful … psychotic killers … in the crazy panorama of a boom town … it shoots itself in the foot with endless big talk as our earnest Earps ponder such queries as ‘What do you want out of life?’”²²

According to Johanna Blume, associate curator of Western art, history and culture at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Westerns “say more about the time that they are created than the time they represent. It’s not about what people valued in 1888 but what the filmmaker and the culture valued when the film was made.” Stephen Holden of The New York Times agreed as he cited the film’s “up-to-date … political consciousness,” its “contemporary attitude toward alcohol and drug abuse” and its depiction of Josephine Marcus “as the most casually and comfortably liberated woman ever to set foot in 1880s Arizona,” played against the opulent and glamorous set of Tombstone. But Holden also suggested that Tombstone was actually two films loosely sewn together: one a traditional shoot-’em-up Western, and the other “a self-consciously digressive meditation on the iconography of the Hollywood western,” with Val Kilmer chewing up huge chunks of scenery in his portrayal of Holliday as a “prefigurement of a dissolute modern poet, a frontier-era Jim Morrison. Attempting to be at once both traditional and morally ambiguous, the film fails in its harmonic vision.”²³

While Holden recognized the film’s underlying themes and the attempt to meld them into a coherent composition, Entertainment Today’s Tim Cogshell must have been on location for the entire shoot as he described the film’s flaws: Jarre’s intent was to make “a serious film and historically correct drama that documented the people and era as accurately as possible.” Cosmatos wanted an action-adventure with “gratuitous hyperrealism” and body count. The result fell somewhere in between with an incoherent storyline, unclear motivations, undeveloped characters and wholesale script revisions.²⁴

Even local newspapers wanted to get into the act as the Arizona Republic claimed in a two-star, so-so review titled, “Tombstone: A film too tough to sit through”: “[W]hen the mustaches are better than the acting and the scenery tops the story, then you’ve got a bad Western—or in the case of Tombstone, a long bad Western.” The Arizona Daily Star called the film “dead on arrival,” and said it wasted the talent of an impressive cast. In particular, it called Dana Delany’s performance a complete washout. But, if one was going, “See it for Val Kilmer … or skip it altogether.”²⁵

In Los Angeles, most of the reviews weren’t any better. The Los Angeles Times’ Peter Rainer wrote that while the actors slouched well, and spit very convincingly, everything else “in this aggressively overlong Western … seemed posed and facetious…. Mostly it looks like overweening actors playing cowboys.” And some critics were downright brutal, such as Tom Long of the Santa Cruz Sentinel. After praising Kilmer, Russell and Elliott, and suggesting that the remaining players were standing around waiting for something to do, he took aim at Delany. Long said Dana was “all fresh-faced and full of touchy feely questions and liberated ideas.” But he left the best (or worst) for last. Kilmer was the only reason to see the film, Long wrote, despite his “pasty face” and “sweating at least 20 gallons in this movie.” However, “You put Olivier in F Troop, and you still have F Troop. Tombstone doesn’t deserve Kilmer and Kilmer certainly doesn’t deserve Tombstone. Neither do you.” And The Inquirer called it “spasmodically inept.”²⁶

Variety’s Emanuel Levy’s review was only slightly less critical: “A decent addition to the current cycle of screen and TV Westerns, Tombstone is a tough-talking but soft-hearted tale that is entertaining in a sprawling, old-fashioned manner…. [T]his never-dull oater should do brisker B.O., particularly with younger viewers. Jarre’s dialogue is often anachronistic, combining a campy contemporary edge with a more realistic dialect … [resulting in a] fun, if not totally engaging, experience.” While praising Fraker’s “luminous widescreen lensing” and “accomplished” production values, Levy blasted Broughton for his “bombastic” music. After lambasting the film for coda after coda after coda, ridiculing Powers Boothe as Yosemite Sam, and describing Kilmer’s performance as a “fey, fetching, hilarious take on Doc Holliday,” Sean O’Neill of the Los Angeles Village View admitted that the film knew what the audience wanted and “delivered its thrills with a visceral kick sure to have the audience hooting and hollering.”²⁷

Many reviewers were waiting with bated breath for the release of Kevin Costner’s Wyatt Earp, as Desmond Ryan said in the McAllen, Texas, Monitor: “[W]e can hope that [Costner’s film] is more organized than what’s served up in Cosmatos’ film. Costner, of course, showed in Dances with Wolves that a single picture could revive a genre. Happily, we can remind ourselves as the funeral cortege pulls into Boot Hill in Tombstone, one bad western won’t kill it.” A view repeated by more than just a few critics.²⁸

The national reviews weren’t nearly as critical and, in fact, some were almost effusive in their praise. Films in Review’s Harry Pearson called it “an almost great Western, blessed with an intelligent (though butchered) script. Had it been filmed as written, this would have been an epic Western. Russell had an especially strong performance…. Kilmer [had a] wickedly good take on Doc Holliday.” DramaLogue said that Tombstone crackled with the authentic feel of the Old West.

The farther away some critics were from Los Angeles and Tucson, the better the reviews. The Ukiah Daily Journal: “[Tombstone] is a worthy adventure.” The Petaluma Argus-Courier called it “compelling.” The Waterloo, Iowa, Courier: “Tombstone goes out with guns blazin’.” Others called it “very entertaining,” “terrific!,” “great fun to watch” and “one of the year’s ten best.” Screen International was right on point when it said, “Tombstone has its share of cringe-making moments…. [Nevertheless] it is rousing Friday-night entertainment. Although it is unlikely to make much of an impact with the critics, audiences should enjoy the film and help to build solid grosses through word of mouth.”²⁹

Despite the fact that Buena Vista really didn’t promote Tombstone all that much and just dumped it on the market … despite the fact that the press really didn’t write that much about it … despite the fact that critics sometimes scorn films made by independent production companies outside the mainstream studio domain … despite all that … the film was successful for one simple reason: Audiences liked it. Back in the day when the Internet wasn’t as prevalent as it is today, and nobody had iPhones, word of mouth was a wonderful communications tool. And the word was, Tombstone was an entertaining film. Said film critic Roger Ebert, “We didn’t review Tombstone when it was released late in the holiday season because we couldn’t get a screening. [Then] a strange thing started to happen. People started telling me they really liked Val Kilmer’s performance in Tombstone, and I heard this everywhere I went. When you hear this once or twice, it’s interesting, when you hear it a couple of dozen times, it’s a trend. And when you read that Bill Clinton loved the performance, you figured you better catch up with the movie.” Typical was the letter from a high school student to his local newspaper: “I didn’t like Unforgiven and I wasn’t too big a fan of the film Posse. I really don’t like westerns all that much. But that all changed when I saw Tombstone. Kurt Russell gives the film the gritty, hard-edged performance that it needed. Don’t let this tombstone get buried among the other films out there this season. See Tombstone at any cost. Grade: A.” Journalist and author Allen Barra was correct when he said, “Tombstone’s success … has to do with its skillful action sequences, brilliant cinematography … and a score of audience-pleasing actors in sharply written roles.”³⁰

Released over the 1993 Christmas weekend, Tombstone earned $14 million in 1504 outlets, and ranked third behind Mrs. Doubtfire and The Pelican Brief. The following week was just as good: $12 million in 1955 theaters and third again in receipts. Tombstone’s original budget (excluding distribution costs) was $23.9 million, but expected overruns increased it to almost $29 million. As a result, in just two weeks, the film’s gross receipts almost covered its costs. But that wasn’t all. The next week, the film grossed another $8.5 million and the project now was in the black. One industry source claimed “it stands an excellent chance of grossing more than $150 million worldwide and becoming the genuine sleeper of 1993.” Not bad results for a film that was almost canceled. In seven weeks, Tombstone would go on to gross $50.5 million domestically ($86.7 million adjusted for inflation). Immediately after the Christmas release, Berkley Publishers released Giles Tippette’s $4.99 paperback novel based on Jarre’s screenplay that included several scenes and expanded dialogue from the film.

Meanwhile, Kevin Costner prepared for the release of his own Earp film. Filming had begun on July 19, 1993, and wrapped up December 15. Obviously, there was no way the film would be ready in time to compete with Tombstone, so the release of Wyatt Earp was delayed until the summer of 1994. Val Kilmer echoed what Costner must have felt when he said, “[Tombstone] came out first and is doing well, so I’m sure they’re worried. But our script is so good—why are they bothering!” Why, indeed! Costner took a not-so-subtle shot at Tombstone when he said, “[A] lot of crummy Westerns are being made,” but his “was crafted with care. It was made thoughtfully and without compromise.” Having said that, he also predicted, “Wyatt Earp will never be No. 1 this summer. It’ll come up third or fourth. Dances was never No. 1. We were always behind Home Alone, but we ended up making $200 million.” Kevin didn’t know how prophetic he was when he also stated, “I believe in the freshness of a movie. I think that a movie that is rendered correctly and told in a refreshing way will be popular in any decade, at any time. Westerns don’t do very well if the Western is bad. The survival of the genre requires people to make really good, refreshing Westerns.” One Warner Bros. source outrageously said, “Tombstone was sold to men. Wyatt Earp will sell to women. It will be the Doctor Zhivago of the Western genre.”³¹

In April, exhibitors were underwhelmed at an advance screening of a nearly completed print of Costner’s Earp. Said one, “It seemed even longer than it was, and the editing was messy. It seemed as if the movie had been rushed.” A Warners executive suggested, “It was an incredibly stubborn move not to [shorten the film].” Naturally, Costner was worried. “The opening weekend is a hard one for me,” he admits. “Especially when you take a lot of time with a movie. I know how I try to make a movie; I know how I lose sleep over it. And when you work hard on things like that, it’s frustrating to me that a movie can be dismissed so easily. It frustrates me when I know that someone’s made a really good movie and then there is this instant response. It’s frustrating to me when people don’t pay attention to detail. I remember when I commissioned this screenplay, the notion was to make it complicated, to make it have layers. To find an original way to get into Wyatt Earp’s life. To recognize that the O.K. Corral was a seminal moment in his life but also to ask, ‘What kind of boy turned into a man that could walk down that street in that fierce and really special time in our country?’” And Costner was none too happy that Tombstone came out first. “I expect people to make movies for the right reason,” insists Kevin. “If I was going to make a movie, and I knew somebody else was already making it, I wouldn’t do it. [Tombstone] was basically rushed out to muddy the waters for us a bit.”

Says Michael Biehn, “[Tombstone ] is a fun movie. It kept people laughing. The quotes were something that a lot people enjoyed. I don’t think anyone on our set ever gave that other movie a second thought. We knew it was out there, but I don’t think anyone ever cared about it one way or the other.” Russell agreed: “Wyatt Earp was never a threat to Tombstone, but Tombstone was always a threat to Wyatt Earp. The trouble is that one or the other of these films should have been a great movie, and the other should have been Tombstone. As it is, both were made in a rush and both suffered.”³²

If Costner was worried about his film, well, he should have been. Although many thought the critics were tough on Tombstone, that was nothing compared to their acerbic opinions about Wyatt Earp. Virtually everyone said that with its 192-minute running time, the film was excruciatingly long. (In 1995, a 212-minute director’s cut was released on videocassette and laser disc.) Although some praised Costner’s attempt, others called it “somber,” “solemn” and “episodic.” Film Reviews’ Anwar Brett wrote, “Wyatt Earp is an epic in every sense, a broad, sweeping film that is weighed down rather than invigorated by its excess of detail. Too often we are given a sense of portent and pretension; that this is filmmaking as ‘art,’ not entertainment. But then there are moments of great satisfaction [and] wonderful cinematic sequences.” After one reviewer called it “the longest, prettiest, most spectacularly boring, self-indulgent, ‘saddle-sore in your theater seat,’ most constipated Western ever made,” he suggested that Costner “may bear the dubious distinction of being the man who brought the Western back to life and the same man who killed it.” One publication even started a cheeky fund-raising campaign for acting lessons for Costner. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, saying, “Wyatt Earp plays as if they took Tombstone and pumped it full of hot air. It involves many of the same characters and much of the same story, but little of the tension and drama. It’s a rambling, unfocused biography … that needs better pacing.”³³

After opening to a decent box office ($10.3 million), the bottom dropped out and it was pulled from distribution after only four weeks with a meager $22 million in total receipts. With an estimated $63 million production budget, Wyatt Earp was a huge flop. The battle of the dueling Earps was over. At the end of the day, it was Tombstone 1, Wyatt Earp 0.

To add insult to injury: On June 22, 1994, right before Earp’s opening, Disney released 400,000 videocassettes of Tombstone to take advantage of the film’s popularity and, if it cut into Costner’s box office returns, well … so be it. And it worked, as between the film and video release, Tombstone accounted for $15 million revenue in Cinergi’s second quarter 1994 financials. Retailers reported a swift rental business. Said James Mulligan of New York’s Tower Video, “Everyone who’s renting Tombstone knew that there were competing films. This one beat Wyatt Earp to the theater—and on video.” And, by the week ending July 3, Tombstone was already the fourth-best video rental in the market. By comparison, Earp was a disaster. According to one industry analyst, the film “might just be the worst flop of all time after deductions for profit participants.” Explained Barry London, Paramount’s worldwide distribution chief, “The pictures that worked found their audiences right from the opening day. The films that missed never showed a flicker of life.”³⁴

Over the next several years, Tombstone was released multiple times in a variety of media formats. On April 15, 1994, a $50, widescreen, letterboxed director’s cut laser disc was released with five extra scenes and commentary by George Cosmatos. Three years later, on December 2, 1997, a single-disc, re-purposed (laserdisc) DVD, multi-language edition was brought out, with theatrical and teaser trailers, and on January 15, 2002, a two-disc Vista Series DVD director’s cut edition came out, with several documentaries, audio commentary by George Cosmatos, O.K. Corral storyboards, interactive timeline, four pages of the Tombstone Epitaph, TV spots, Easter eggs, a collectible Tombstone map, and a DVD-ROM Faro game. Released on April 27, 2010, a two-disc Blu-ray version was almost identical in content to the Vista Series director’s cut that excluded the paper collectibles and commentary.³⁵

Disney veterans Tony Malanowski and Kevin Reem had the opportunity to work with Cosmatos on the Vista Series release. In the spring of 2001, the duo was asked to be associate producers on the recreation of the Tombstone director’s cut with additional value material for a new DVD release. Although a VHC copy of the complete version was made available as a check, Tony wanted a Digital BetaCam copy of the cut version of the film, which wasn’t readily available, “so I took my laserdisc of the film over to a facility and had them transfer it to Digi-Beta for me!” laughs Tony. “That transfer from laserdisc was used throughout the process as a guide and also to pull clips from for the added value segments.” Tombstone had sections that easily fit back into the picture, with some minor feathering for sound and a couple of cutaway shots. So, Tony ordered up a workprint off the negative sections, then sent the negative to Technicolor to be spliced. That was the easy part of the project.³⁶

Next they had to work with the still-volatile Cosmatos on the commentary. Along with the executive producer from Sparkhill Productions, Reem helped record the audio commentary. “I did most of the research and worked up the questions we would be asking George Cosmatos as he would do the recording while watching the full cut of the movie,” Kevin explains. “It took two, three days to record the audio commentary, and also to interview George on camera. Every day, we sent a limo for him, and when George would arrive, he would look at me and bellow, ‘Who are you?’ And he would do that a few times more over the course of the day. I would explain that I was assigned to the project, and George would nod and then we’d go over the whole thing again a couple of hours later!” Cosmatos would settle into the sound booth and light up a cigar; the smell permeated the entire facility and caused the owner’s wife to become so ill she had to leave the building. All the while, Cosmatos kept telling everyone how he had saved Tombstone.³⁷

Then George sat in on the color correction of the film for a new transfer from the original negative. Malanowski was told he had to be at Telecine Bay to shepherd Cosmatos through the process. The head of Sparkhill was there with the colorist who would program the film’s color, shot by shot, to create a new video record of the picture. But then, things got a bit weird. “George kept telling the colorist to add more blue to the picture,” remembers Malanowski. “I mean, the movie takes place out west in the desert, for Pete’s sake, and George was adding so much blue the sand dunes were looking like rolling ocean waves! The colorist kept looking back at me and George kept bellowing, ‘Well, fight me! If it’s too blue, you must fight me!’” After Malanowski and Cosmatos moved outside to smoke their cigars, the colorist took the opportunity to work on the film undisturbed. Soon, they completed the first color pass and George departed. After Cosmatos left, there was a meeting to decide on what to do with the overabundance of blue that had been programmed in. Malanowski suggested cutting the blue by 30 percent overall and doing a more-involved second pass, which was done. Cosmatos’ color records were stored “just in case,” but he never returned to the color sessions, and the professional colorist finished the job. That corrected pass is how Tombstone was released.

Apparently, there was a reason for Cosmatos’ behavior during this color-correcting work. “I can’t remember where I read this,” recalls Tony, “which obituary it was in—but there was a mention of another health problem that George had around that time. In 2003, Cosmatos lost his sight after surgery to remove cysts over his eyes. The obituary noted that one of the warning signs of that kind of problem would be if you had problems seeing certain colors … like, for example, if you could no longer distinguish the color blue.”³⁸

Over the years, Tombstone has risen in stature to a point where readers’ polls consistently rank it as one of the ten best Westerns ever. And rightly so. Over two dozen films have dealt with the events surrounding October 26, 1881, and the aftermath, and this one is among the best. Stripping the Hollywood hokum from previous efforts, it attempts to “make a serious and historically correct drama that documents the people and era as accurately as possible.” Many previous films about Wyatt Earp and the O.K. Corral were marvelous pieces of cinema, but terribly inaccurate. Kevin Jarre rectified that with a script that combined crackling dialogue with a well-developed and poetic storyline. When asked if the public needed yet another telling of the O.K. Corral legend, Kurt Russell once replied, “Of course not. But if you’re asking me if we need a telling of the story that’s based in reality, then I say, ‘Yes, yes, yes.’ And for my tastes, it’s infinitely more entertaining to see a movie like this that is based on the facts. My Darling Clementine is great moviemaking but it has nothing to do with the truth.”³⁹

William Fraker’s photography is replete with deliciously filmed sunsets, rugged landscapes and atmospheric richness, counterbalanced against the gritty, newly constructed, bursting-with-life and -energy set designed by Catherine Hardwicke. Again according to Russell, the set wasn’t designed to look like the Old West, it was designed the way people saw it in 1879, as the New West. Combine that with costumes designed by Joseph Porro, augmented with the historically correct re-enactors, Tombstone is as historically correct a Western as one is likely to see.

No Western is 100 percent accurate. Doc Holliday never killed Johnny Ringo, Virgil and Morgan weren’t both ambushed on the same night, and the number of Cowboys killed during Earp’s Vendetta ride is highly exaggerated. Tombstone is definitely a revisionist take on the historic legend of Earp and the O.K. Corral superimposed on the political and cultural times during which it was made. No longer all black or white, the story is told in shades of gray, with a more realistic and less biased approach toward history. And, despite George Cosmatos’ tyrannical, misogynistic and egocentric behavior, credit must be given to this gifted director for taking control of the production and bringing Kevin Jarre’s vision to fruition. Were it not for Jarre’s brilliant script, and an absolute insistence on authenticity, Tombstone would not be half the film that it is.⁴⁰

Kurt Russell doesn’t show us a Wyatt Earp who’s the traditional, white hat–wearing, one-dimensional lawman, but rather a stoic, dark, somber and, at times, morally ambiguous individual, torn between law and order and happiness. Portraying Earp as both existential and complex, Russell captured the essence of Earp’s character: a strong moral fiber with heroic capabilities. In several scenes, Russell’s eyes alone give the viewer a clear indication of his character’s emotional turmoil. His performance as Earp established Kurt as a Hollywood A-list box-office draw.

The film’s supporting cast is a virtual embarrassment of riches, though sadly underutilized. While Billy Bob Thornton’s take on the bully Johnny Tyler is effective, and Charlton Heston is his usual larger-than-life self, actresses Lisa Collins and Paula Malcomson as the Earp wives are little more than window dressing. Joanna Pacula, a last-minute replacement, fares well as Holliday’s paramour, and although her character wasn’t sufficiently developed, her performance made a lasting impression. Dana Wheeler-Nicholson’s chararacterization of the drug-addled Mattie was spot-on; it would have been interesting to create the backstory of her addiction. And despite the fact that Dana Delany performs wonderfully as a modern woman of the Old West, the staging of the famous Kaloma photograph seems a bit gratuitous. Billy Zane has a memorable scene as the actor Romulus Fabian, and Sam Elliott, Stephen Lang and Bill Paxton all turn in their usual solid performances. Unfortunately, despite being given significant billing in the film’s promotional campaign, Jason Priestley plays a role that is almost non-existent.

Where the film really shines is when Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn and Val Kilmer are on the screen. Boothe’s performance as the psychotic Curly Bill Brocius leaves an indelible image. Powers had a unique take on his outlaw character: “Curly Bill was a guy … who everybody liked. He had a lot of dash about him, a lot of panache … tremendous sense of humor. He really lusts for life—he just eats it up.” So did Powers, in every scene. From his howling at the moon, to his enthusiastic response to Fabian’s theatrical performance, to his humorless reply “Well … ’bye,” Boothe brought a certain flamboyance to a traditional outlaw—at times friendly and persuasive, other times vengeful and scheming. Michael Biehn agreed: “There were a lot of great characters in that movie, but Powers—his screen presence just dominates.”⁴¹

Biehn’s sociopathic, cold-hearted Johnny Ringo is borderline maniacal. Portrayed as intellectual and cultured, Ringo lacks a conscience, and takes pleasure in killing. Biehn’s eyes gleam in intensity during such sequences, which provide a window into his character’s insanity. Michael admits he wanted to play Ringo as almost suicidal, and in this he succeeds admirably. In the Making Of documentary, Biehn explains that Ringo “has a lot of problems that stem from his religion, growing up. A really hard-core religious family. He’s really a tragic figure.” With a flair for the dramatic, Biehn captures the essence of Ringo’s personality: the edge, the attitude, a boiling pot waiting to explode. His performance rivals Val Kilmer in passion and impact and is a key reason for the success of the film.⁴²

Kilmer’s performance as the tubercular, pale, sickly Doc Holliday is nothing less than a tour de force. Blessed with tremendous material to work with, Kilmer applies his own formidable acting skills to a mesmerizing, memorable, scene-stealing signature role. Such descriptions, and many more, have been used to describe his acting in Tombstone. Everyone agreed that whoever had the good fortune to land the role of Holliday would steal the movie, and Kilmer did just that. From his dry wit and Southern gentleman manners, to his lightning-fast draw and memorable lines, it seems that “the rest of the movie is happening around him.”

More than anything, Tombstone is a film about the close, “understated but unshakable” relationship between Wyatt and Doc, each on the opposite side of the law, each willing to cross over if required. Loyalty and friendship are keys to their connection. Kilmer observes, “[Doc] had a real respect for Wyatt’s morality, even though he didn’t live it out, and Wyatt had a real respect for Doc’s sense of freedom and experience, so they each possessed a quality … that the other didn’t have and they could live vicariously through each other. My feeling about the core of their friendship is that they were different men who found a kinship that each of them was willing to die for. It was a really deep love.” Unfortunately, Kilmer never received the credit he deserved for his performance. Said one Disney marketing source, “Look, the film was done through Cinergi Productions, and, by the time it came to us, there were all the stories about the director being fired and bad feeling between him and the producers. It took a while for us to know what kind of film we had, but we’re behind it now and pushing as hard as we can.”

Really? Russell takes exception to that statement. “The studio was shocked at what they had—they didn’t know what to do with the movie. They didn’t promote it very much, didn’t know what to do with it, didn’t know where it was coming from. It was a Western. A Western! They didn’t know anything. And it wasn’t their baby!” As a result, not only didn’t Kilmer win an Academy Award for his performance, he wasn’t even nominated.⁴³

Tombstone was very much an “actor’s picture,” with testosterone galloping around the set like rutting studs. Each actor had only a limited number of scenes to show his chops, so to speak, and the tension was thick. But as a result, everyone also brought his “A” game. And sometimes, this tension was even apparent between the actors. According to Powers Boothe, “[Y]our character had his moment to step up to the plate. You had your home run opportunity, and sometimes you’d go up there and hit a single. Nobody was trying to steal scenes.” From cast to crew, everyone said that although it was an extremely difficult shoot, projects such as Tombstone came along perhaps once in a career, and they were extremely proud to be a part of it.⁴⁴

As Russell said, “The shame about Tombstone, that you can’t possibly appreciate [is] the movie, what you saw, is that movie. The movie is The Godfather—a Western Godfather. That’s how different that movie is from the one you saw…. [A]ll that stuff is put away in my garage, including an interesting scene that shows a deeper relationship between Wyatt Earp and the Cowboys.” Stephen Lang: “I know what’s on screen and I also know what we shot and the film that’s been made is an excellent film, but I think in the end there was a classic buried in there as well.”

As is obvious, there was a tremendous amount of footage that both Jarre and Cosmatos filmed that didn’t make it into the final cut: numerous vignettes with the Cowboys both before and after the O.K. Corral shootout; Wyatt’s attempt to retrieve his stolen horse and subsequent conversation with McMasters; the killings of Hunt and Grounds by Breakenridge; Fabian’s death and the stagecoach holdup, and on and on. Everyone associated with the film agrees it could be so much better, so much richer, with a well-developed, explainable storyline. Kurt had been given all the footage by Andy Vajna. Perhaps someday, we may see the movie they way Jarre intended … we can only hope.⁴⁵